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LOYAL PUBLICATION SOCIETY. 

S«3 BROADWAY. 

JTo 7. 

CHARACTER AND RESULTS OF 

THE WAR. 

How to Prosecute end How to End It. 

A THRILLING AND ELOQUENT SPEECH 

BY 

Major-General B. F. BUTLEB, 


Reported by A. F. Warburton. 


Before the return of Gen. Butler from the 
Department of the Gulf, some-of the leading 
citizens of New York, anxious to testify their 
admiration of his administration of that De¬ 
partment, and their appreciation of his distin¬ 
guished services on other fields, united in ten¬ 
dering him a public dinner, addressing him the 
following letter : 

“New York, Thursday, Jan. 8, 1863. 
u Major-General Benjamin F. Butler, United States 

Army: 

“ Dear Sir,—At a meeting of citizens of this 
city, held at the Fifth Avenue Hotel on the even¬ 
ing of the 6th instant, for the purpose of express¬ 
ing the sense of this community in reference to 
the public services rendered by you to the coun¬ 
try, the following resolution was unanimously 
adopted: 

“ Resolved , That the loyal patriotism, indomit¬ 
able energy, and great administrative ability 
shown by Major-General Benjamin F. Butler, in 
the various commands held by him in the service 
of the country^ and especially in his civil and 
military administration of the duties pertaining 
to his command of the Department of the Gulf, 


eminently entitle him to an expression of appro¬ 
bation on the part of the citizens of New York. 

“ In furtherance of the views thus expressed it 
was also resolved, that, in addition to such actiou 
as may be taken by our municipal authorities, in 
extending to you the hospitalities of this city, a 
public dinner be tendered to you by the citizens, 
and the undersigned were appointed a committee 
to communicate with you upon the sub ect. 

“ We have now the honor to apprise you of the 
action thus taken, and to ask that you will meet 
with our citizens at a public dinner at such time, 
to be appointed by you, as may be consistent with 
your official duties and your personal conveni¬ 
ence. 

“ In conveying to you this invitation, intended 
as a tribute of personal respect and esteem, we 
are well assured that it will not be the less ac¬ 
ceptable to you as marked by a still higher sig¬ 
nificance. 

“The citizens of New York, watching the 
events of the war with a degree of vigilance and 
anxiety proportioned to the vast interests and in¬ 
fluences which converge toward and radiate from 
this great commercial centre, have recognized 





in the course pursued by you in the service and 
support of the Government, the principles which 
they deem most essential and indispensable to 
its triumph. They share with you the conviction 
that there is no middle or neutral ground between 
loyalty and treason ; that traitors against the Gov¬ 
ernment forfeit all rights of protection and of 
property; that those who persist in armed re¬ 
bellion, or aid it less openly but not less effect¬ 
ively, must be put down, and kept down by the 
strong hand of power and by the use of all right¬ 
ful means, and that, so far as may be, the suffer¬ 
ings of the poor and the misguided, caused by the 
rebellion, should be visited upon the authors of 
their calamities. We have seen with approbation 
that in applying these principles, amidst the pe" 
culiar difficulties and embarrassments incident to 


your administration in your recent command, you 
have had the sagacity to devise, the will to exe¬ 
cute, and the courage to enforce the measures 
which they demanded, and we rejoice at the suc¬ 
cess which has vindicated the wisdom and the 
justice o your official course. In thus congratu¬ 
lating you upon these results, we believe that we 
express the feeling of all those who most earnestly 
desire the epeedy restoration of the Union in its 
full integrity and power; and we trust that you 
will be able to afford us the opportunity of inter¬ 
changing with you, in the manner proposed, the 
patriotic sympathies and hopes which belong to 
this sacred cause. 

“We are, General, with high respect, your 
friends and obedient servants, 


Chaa, King, 
George Opdyke, 
Horace Webster, 
Robert Bayard, 
Fred. De Peyster, 
B. W. Bonney, 
John Paine, 

W. F. Havemeyer, 
John J. Cisco, 
John J. Phelps, 

I). Dudley Field, 
Geo. W. Blunt, 
Ed. Minturn, 

S. B. Chittenden, 
Elliot C. Cowdin, 
Ed. Learned, 
Morris Franklin, 

E. Nye, 

II. It. Bogert, 

II. A. Hurlbut, 
Geo. Stevenson, 
Hobart Ford, 

Ohas. Gould, 


C. H. Marshall, 
Geo. W. Parsons, 
Peter Cooper, 

Isaac Ferris, 

Chas. II. Russell, 

J onathan Sturges, 
Geo. Griswold, 

I. N. Phelps, 

Hiram Barney, 
Denning Duer, 
Morris Itetchum, 

R. II McCurdy, 
Ambrose Snow, 
Alex. W. Bradford, 
Wra. G. Lambert, 
Ros. D. Hitchcock, 
Pros. M. Wetmore, 
Henry II. Elliott, 
M. II. Grinnell, 
Amos R. Eno, 

Jno. A. C. Gray, 
Seth B. Hunt, 

R. G. White, 


L. Bra dish, 

P. Perit, 

Hamilton Fish, 
John A. King, 

E. D. Morgan, 

L. B. Woodruff, 
Murray Hoffman, 
Wm. A. Booth, 
David Iloadley, 
John E. Williams, 
E. E. Morgan, 

Wm. Allen Butler, 
G. p. Robbins, 
Marsh. 0. Roberts, 
J. D. Beers, 

B. H. Hutton, 

Geo. Folsom, 

J. F. Gray, M. D., 
Russell Sturgess, 
Charles Butler, 

G. T. Strong, 

J. Burns, 

R. A. McCurdy, 


Frank E. Howe, 

J. A. Pullen, 

Isaac Sherman, 

Henry W. T. Mall, 

Ilamlin Blake, 

T. T. Buckley, 

Paul Spofford, 

J. II. Almy, 

E. C. Benedict, 

N. Sands, 

Wm. C. Noyes, 

Shepherd Knapp, 

E. P. James, 

Joseph Rudd, 

E. D. James, 

S. Draper, 

W. Parker, M. D., 

W II. L. Barne3, 

A. Biers'.adt, 

John Jay, 

C. A. Bristed, 

L. B. Wyman, 

J. Wadsworth, 

John B. Hall, 

M. B. Field, 

Wm. Y. Brady, 

R. W. Weston, 

F. S. Winston, 

N. Hayden, 

Geo. Dennison, 

R .F. Andrews, 

Wm. Orton, 

C. IL Robert, 

Jno. Slosson, 

T. G. Churchill, 

Joseph Iloxie, 

C. II. Ludington, 

Wm. C. Bryant, 

T. H. Skinner, 

Isaac Dayton, 

D. Drake Smith, 
Tarke Godwin. 

D. N. Barney, 

To this, Gen. Butler, at the 

earliest moment 

consistent with liis official duties, made the 
following reply : 

REPLY OF GENERAL BUTLER. 


“Loweel, Thursday, March 26, 1S03. 

“ Gentlemen,—The necessities of my position 
have rendered it exceedingly inconvenient for me 
earlier to reply to your exquisitely courteous and 
too kind Tetter of approval of the administration 
of my command of the Department of the Gulf, 
asking me to fix a day when I could meet you as 
therein proposed. 

“With every expression of profoundest grati¬ 
tude for your invitation to partake of a public 
dinner with the citizens of New York, allow me 
to suggest that'while I am waiting orders to join 
my brave comrades in the field, it would not be 
consonant with mj’- sense of duty to accept your 
flattering hospitalities. 

“To you, gentlemen, at home bearing your 
share of the burdens and expenses of this unholy 
War, forced upon us by treason, the tendering of 
such an expression of approbation of Ihe conduct 
of a public officer was fit and proper, as it was 
natural and customary, but my acceptance of it 
would trench upon a different feeling. I too well 
know the revulsion of feeling with which the 
soldier in the field, occupying the trenches, pacing 
the sentinel’s weary path in the blazing heat, or 
watching from his cold bivouac the stars shut out 
by the drenching cloud, hears of feasting and 
merry-making at home by those who ought to 
bear his hardships with him, and the bitterness 
with which he speaks of those who, thus engaged, 
are wearing his uniform. 

“ Upon the scorching sand, and under the brain- 
trying sun of the Gulf coast, I have too much 
shared that feeling to add one pang, however 
slight, to the discomfort which my fellow-soldiers 



3 


buffer doing the duties of the camp and field, by 
my own act, while separated momentarily from 
them by the exigencies of the public service. 

“ You will pardon, I am sure, this apparent 
rudeness of refusal of your most generous pro¬ 
posal, but, under such circumstances, I have 
spoken too bitterly and too often of the participa¬ 
tion by absent officers on such occasions to permit 
myself to take part in one, even when offered 
in the patriotic spirit which breathes through 
your letter, desiring "to testify approval of my 
services to the country. 

* It would, however, give me much pleasure to 
testify my gratitude for your kindness by meeting 
you and your fellow-citizens in a less formal man. 
ner, * interchanging the patriotic sympathies and 
hopes which belong to this sacred cause.’ Per¬ 
haps, by so doing we may do something in aid of 
that cause. Whatever may strengthen the pur¬ 
pose, deepen the resolution, and fix the determin¬ 
ation never to yield this contest until this re¬ 
bellion, in its roots and branches, in its causes, in 
its effects and designs, is overthrown and utterly 
annihilated forever, and the power.of the National 
Government—with its democracying influences 
and traditional theories of equality of rights, the 
equality of laws, and equality of privileges for 
all, as received from the fathers of the Republic 
—is actively acknowledged upon every inch of 
the United States territory, is an aid—nay, a 
necessity—to the cause of the country. To pre¬ 
pare the public mind by doubts, or fears, or sug. 
gestions of compromises, or hopes of peace, to be 
satisfied with any thing less than these demands^ 
is treason to country, humanity, and God—more 
foul, because more cowardly than rebellion. 

“ Let, then, every loyal man join hands with 
his neighbor, sinking all differences of political 
opinion, which must be minor to this paramount 
interest, and pledge himself to the fullest support 
of the Government, with men and means to crush 
out this treason, and then, and not till then, am I 
willing to hear anything of political party. 

“Again and again returning you my grateful 
thanks for the courtesy done me by your action, 
allow me to say that I shall be in New York dur¬ 
ing the coming week, and shall be happy at any 
time to meet you, gentlemen, and my fellow-citi¬ 
zens, in such manner as they may think fitting. 

“ Most respectfully, your obedient servant, 

“ Benjamin F. Butler, 

“ Major-General U. S. V.” 


In compliance with Gen. Butler’s preferen¬ 
ces, as expressed in the above, a public recep¬ 
tion was arranged, and took place at the Acad¬ 
emy of Music, Thursday evening, April 2d. 
The welcome then extended to the gallant 
soldier, was, in all respects, one of t^e most 
enthusiastic and significant ever extended to 
any honored servant of any people. Long be¬ 
fore the hour of commencement, the house was 
filled in every part, our loyal women alone 
almost filling the balcony and upper circles. 
Mrs. Butler and Mrs. Banks were present, 
sitting in the private boxes, and upon the stage 
were General Wool, General C. M. Clay, and a 
large number of our well-known citizens. 

Previous to the opening of the meeting, 
Major-General Wool and several officers of 
his staff entered upon the stage. His ap¬ 
pearance was greeted with tremendous cheers. 
Gen. W etmore came forward and said: 

I am happy to see that this immense audience 
recognizes one of our noblest heroes, Major-Gen¬ 
eral Wool. [Cheers.] 

The applause having subsided, Gen. Wool 
advanced to the footlights, and said: 

SPEECH OF GEX. WOOL. 

I thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for the honor 
of this recognition. I am not prepared to make a 
speech on this occasion. You will have those who 
can speak to you better than I can do. But per¬ 
mit me to say what you already know—I am for 
putting down this rebellion nolens volens, and 
will never concede to any compromise until that is 
accomplished. [Tremendous cheers.] 

The orchestra having concluded a beautiful 
introductory overture, the Union Glee Club 
came forward and sang, in an excellent man¬ 
ner, “ The Sword of Bunker Hill.” A loud and 
long encore being given by the audience, the 
Club sang: 

“ Columbia, we love thee, 

Land of the free.” 

The orchestra soon struck up the enlivening 
strains of “Hail to the Chief,” which gave sure 
indication that 

MAJ.-GEN. BUTLER 

was approaching. Soon the General made his 
appearance, and was received with long and 
loud continued cheers, the ladies waiving their 
handkerchiefs, while the men strained their 







4 


throats to give the gallant hero the reception 
which was so justly due him. The coup d'ceil 
presented on the General’s appearance was 
superb. Parquet, dress circle, and galleries 
united in most uproarious cheers, and men 
seemed almost beside themselves with demon¬ 
strative zeal. Handkerchiefs and hats were 
waved, and the uproar continued for several 
minutes. Silence being restored, Senator Mor¬ 
gan introduced Maj.-Gen. Butler to His Honor 
Mayor Opdyke, as follows: 

SPEECH OF SENATOR MORGAN. 

Mr. Mayor, —It affords me the greatest pleasure 
to introduce to you the most efficient officer in the 
United States service, Maj.-Gen. Benjamin F 
Butler. [Loud and continued cheers.] 

Gen. Butler advanced towards the Mayor, 
who cordially took his hand and then addressed 
him as follows : 

SPEECH OF THE MAYOR. 

General Butler, —The gentlemen upon whose 
invitation you are here, have charged me with tli e 
agreeable duty of bidding you welcome to our 
city, and expressing to you the warm-hearted 
greeting, not merely of those present, but of every 
loyal heart in this loyal metropolis. Our citizens 
have long desired the privilege of testifying to 
you personally their great respect for your char¬ 
acter, and their high appreciation of your public 
services. In their name I thank you for having 
now accorded them this privilege. They have 
watched your public career during the present 
war with a constantly increasing interest and ad¬ 
miration. They saw you among the first to 
abandon' an honorable and lucrative profession, 
and voluntarily take up arms in defence of a 
government you loved, although it was adminis¬ 
tered by those whose election you had earnestly 
opposed. They felt that no stronger evidence 
could be adduced of an exalted patriotism. 

Your first theatre of military service was in Mary¬ 
land, a State then trembling in the balance between 
loyalty and treason, and in whose metropolis 
soldiers of the Union had been assassinated on 
their way to the protection of the capital. At 
that critical period you were fortunately placed 
in command, first at Annapolis and afterward at 
Baltimore; and it is, perhaps, not too much to say 
that it was owing to your judicious management^ 
in which you wisely blended moderation with 
firmness, that Maryland escaped the criminal folly 


of secession. At all events, you promptly sub¬ 
dued the outbreaks of treason in that State, and 
thus rendered it safe for our troops to pass 
through the city of Baltimore without molestation. 

You were next placed in command at Fortress 
Monroe, where you made the sagacious discovery 
that slaves were contraband of war. In view of 
the tenderness with which our Government and its 
military commanders had up to that time treated 
the institution of slavery, this discovery must be 
regarded as one of the most valuable of the war, 
and therefore one which entitles you to the public 
gratitkde. It quietly but most effectively divested 
the “ divine institution ” of all its sanctity in the 
presence of war. 

From Fortress Monroe you were transferred 
to a wider field of usefulness, by being 
placed in command of the Department of the 
Gulf. Your friends knew that in a position so 
environed with difficulties as this, no ordinary 
commander could hope to acquit himself with 
credit. You soon found yourself, with a handful 
of men, remote from your base of supplies and 
from succor, in the metropolis of the Confederacy, 
where the population, with few exceptions, was 
intensely hostile to the National Government; 
and the moment they discovered the fidelity and 
ability with which you upheld the interests of 
the Government, all their intensity of hatred was 
transferred to you personally. They grossly 
misrepresented your acts ; they wilfully misinter¬ 
preted your language; they heaped on you the 
vilest epithets, and in every conceivable way 
labored to cover your name with infamy. 

The rebel government and the rebel press 
throughout the Confederacy took up the theme 
and repeated these slanders with every varia¬ 
tion that ingenuity could suggest. The rebel,^-, ! 
chief, in his annual message, even went so far I 
as to brand you as an outlaw, and to decree your 
execution in case you should fall into the hands 
of his military forces. They also conferred on 
you, I believe, the exclusive honor of offering a 
large reward for your head. Nor were the malig¬ 
nant slanders I have referred to uttered only by 
the rebels. Their sympathizers at the North and 
throughout Europe joined in the refrain, and re¬ 
echoed their bitter denunciations. 

Abuse from the bad, like praise from the 
good, affords presumptive evidence of merit. 
Hence, if our Government or its true friends 
had been ignorant of your policy, they might 






5 




have safely inferred, from this clamor of its 
bitter enemies, that that policy was just and 
wise. But, sir, the loyal people of the North 
were not ignorant of your acts or your policy. 
They saw that your capacious and fertile mind, 
your resolute will, your dauntless courage, and 
your earnest patriotism, rendered you master of 
the situation, and fitted you, above all other men, 
for the difficult position in which you were placed. 
They saw that you fully comprehended your duty 
as a military commander, as a legislator, as a 
judge, as an executive officer, and as a tamer of 
rebel madmen and mad women—for your sphere 
of duty embraced all these; and they saw that 
your firm will stood ever ready to execute what 
your judgment dictated and your conscience ap¬ 
proved. 

In thus acting, you strengthened the cause 
of your Government, which is the cause of 
justice and right. But you at the same time 
weakened the cause of its enemies, which is the 
cause of oppression and wrong. For this they 
hate and revile you ; for that we esteem and praise 
you. 

But, sir, you shocked the sensibilities of Se- 
cessia and all its partisans in the outer world 
by that terrible decree, called Order No. 28. That 
order, as I understand it, was simply intended to 
extend a salutary police arrangement, which had 
long existed in New Orleans, so as to bring within 
its jurisdiction and restraint the improper conduct 
of those aristocratic dames who gloried in heap¬ 
ing insults on the soldiers of the Union. It had 
the desired effect. It improved their manners 
and their modesty; for which, sir, I doubt not, 
they will in due time return you thanks instead 
of execrations, as now. The presence of our wives 
and daughters here to-night proves that the ladies 
of New York regard that far-famed order, both in 
its intention and effects, as proper and salutary. 

You gave lessons equally useful to the sterner 
sex. You taught them to respect the authority 
of th^United States^ and to fear its power. You 
treated as enemies of your country all who avowed 
themselves as such, and, in strict accordance with 
the usages of war and the laws of the United 
States, you confiscated their property and appro¬ 
priated it to the support of their own poor, and 
in providing for the wants of your army. 

By these and kindred measures you purified the 
moral, social, and political atmosphere of a city 
in which each had been rendered most noxious by I 


the unbridled reign of treason and the vices en¬ 
gendered by slavery. By your wi:e sanitary reg¬ 
ulations you also kept the material atmosphere 
pure, and thus excluded pestilence. As a former 
resident of New Orleans, I know that to have ac¬ 
complished this in a city so unhealthy, and where 
all previous efforts in that direction had failed, musk 
be regarded as one of your noblest achievements. 
I have little doubt that among its beneficial results 
was the preservation of the lives of at least one- 
half of your command. Your troops were all 
unaccliraated. The yellow fever prevailed afc 
nearly all the neighboring ports on the Gulf 
and in the West Indies, and, but for your 
vigorous quarantine and strict sanitary regula¬ 
tion within the city, would have become epi¬ 
demic in New Orleans. In that event, vour 
whole army would have been attacked by it 
—for none of the unacclimated escape—and it is 
known that at least fifty per cent of the cases 
prove fatal. 

By means like these you husbanded your small 
command and slender means in such a masterly 
manner that during eight months service you 
did not call upon the Government for a dollar, 
except for the pay of your soldiers; and you 
turned over to your successor two thousand more 
troops than you had received from your Govern¬ 
ment, with military lines embracing two-thirds of 
.the population, and nearly that proportion of the 
territory of the State of Louisiana. 

The brief sketch I have thus given of your 
achievements in the Department of the Gulf might 
be indefinitely extended. But I have said enough 
to show that you have made a record of which any 
commander, however distinguished, might justly 
feel proud, and which the present and future gen¬ 
erations will not fail to appreciate. 

We, sir, glory in the fact that our country and 
our institutions can, in an emergency, produce from 
private life ready-made military commanders, 
statesmen and jurists of the highest type, and all 
combined in a single individual. In your late 
command you have been called upon to exercise 
the functions appertaining to each of these, and it 
must be conceded that you acquitted yourself 
admirably in all. As a commander, you did not 
prosecute war in the spirit of peace, but with the 
iron-handed rigor which its necessities demand 
aud its usages justify, and which is an indispensa¬ 
ble element of success. As a jurist and lawyer, 
you proved yourself a perfect master of every 






6 


0 


code thnt could be applied to the novel legal ques¬ 
tions presented for your decision. In truth, your 
legal acumen was quite an overmatch for that of 
the leading rebels and their sympathetic consular 
allies. But, sir, it is for the statesmanlike quali¬ 
ties evinced by you in this contest that your 
friends are disposed to award you the highest, 
praise. You seem to them to comprehend most 
perfectly all the principles involved in the present 
contest, as well as the best means of bringing it to 
a successful issue. Your pioneer mind, like Daniel 
Boone, among the border men of the West, seems 
to keep in advance of all others. You are fami¬ 
liar with the causes that produced the war; you 
have shared in its progress, and have had leisure 
einceyour return from active sei vice to take a dis¬ 
passionate survey of its present status and its 
probable future. We shall feel greatly obliged 
if you will give us your views on such of these 
topics as may be agreeable to you; feeling well 
assured that whatever you may say will be marked 
by your accustomed originality of thought and 
breadth of knowledge, and must therefore prove 
both interesting and instructive. 

Without detaining you longer, General, permit 
me to renew my assurance of welcome, and then 
present you to an assemblage worthy of such a 
guest. 

The Mayor, at the conclusion of the address, 
again took the General cordially by the hand, 
and presented him to the assembly as one of 
the best specimens of the volunteer army of the 
United States. [Prolonged cheers.] 

General Butler acknowledged the courteous 
reception, and spoke as follows : 

SPEECH OF GEN. BUTLER. 

Mr. Mayor, —With the profoundest gratitude for 
the too flattering commendation of my adminis¬ 
tration of the various trusts committed to me by 
the Government, which, in behalf of your associ¬ 
ates, you have been pleased to tender, I ask you 
to receive my most heartfelt thanks. To the cit¬ 
izens of New York here assembled, graced by the 
fairest and loveliest, in kind appreciation of my 
services supposed to have been rendered to the 
country, I tender the deepest acknowledgments. 
[Applause.] I accept it all, not for myself, but 
for my brave comrades of the Army of the Gulf. 
[Renewed applause.] I receive it as an earnest 
of your devotion to the country—an evidence of 
your loyalty to the Constitution under which you 


live, and under which you hope to die. In order 
that the acts of the Army of the Gulf may be 
understood, perhaps it would be well, at a little 
length, with your permission, that some detail 
should be given of the thesis upon which we ful¬ 
filled our duties. The first question, then, to be 
ascertained is, what is this contest in which the 
country is engaged ? At the risk of being a littl e 
tedious, at the risk even of calling your attention 
to what might seem otherwise too elementary, I 
propose to run down through the history of the 
contest to see what it is that agitates the whole 
country at this day and this hour. That we 
are in the midst of civil commotion, all know. 
But what is that commotion ? Is it a riot ? Is 
it an insurrection ? Is it a rebellion ? Or is it a 
revolution ? And pray, sir, although it may seem 
still more elementary, what is a riot ? A riot, if 
I understand it, is simply an outburst of the pas¬ 
sions of a number of men for the moment, in 
breach of the law, by force of numbers, to be put 
down and subdued by the civil authorities; if it 
goes further, to be dealt with by the military 
authorities. But you say, sir, “ Why treat us to 
a definition of a riot upon this occasion ? Why, 
of all things,-should you undertake to instruct a 
New York audience in what a riot is ? ’’ [Laugh¬ 
ter.] To that I answer, because the Administra¬ 
tion of Mr. Buchanan dealt with this great change 
of affairs as if it were a riot; because liis Govern¬ 
ment officer gave the opinion that in Charleston it 
was but a riot; and that, as there was no civil 
authority there, to call out the military, therefore, 
Sumter must be given over to the rioters ; and 
that was the beginning of this struggle. Let us 
see liow it grew up. I deal not now in causes, but 
with effects—facts. Directly after the guns of 
the rebels had turned upon Sumter, the several 
States of the South, in Convention assembled, in¬ 
augurated a series of movements which took out 
from the Union divers States; and as each was 
attempted to be taken out, the riots, if such ex¬ 
isted, were no longer found in them, but they 
become insurrectionary; and the Administration, 
upon the 15th of April, 1861, dealt with this state 
of affairs as an insurrection, and called out the 
militia of the United States to subdue an insur¬ 
rection. I was called at that time into the service 
to administer the laws in putting down an insur¬ 
rection. I found a riot at Baltimore. They had 
burned bridges; but the riot had hardly arisen 
to the dignity of an insurrection, because the 





7 


Statb had not moved as an organized community. 
A few men were rioting at Baltimore; and as I 
marched there at the head of United States 
troops, the question came up, What have I before 
me ? You will remember that I offered then to 
put down all kinds of insurrections so long as the 
State of Maryland remained loyal to the United 
States. Transferred from thence to a wider 
sphere at Fortress Monroe, I found that the State 
of Virginia, through its organization, had taken 
itself out of the Union, and was endeavoring to 
erect for itself an independent government; and 
I dealt with that State as being in rebellion, and 
thought the property of the rebels, of whatever 
name or nature, should be dealt with as rebellious 
property, and contraband of war, subject to the 
laws of war. [Great applause.] I have been 
thus careful in stating these various steps, be¬ 
cause, although through your kindness replying to 
eulogy, lam here answering every charge of incon¬ 
sistency and wrong of intention for my acts done 
before the country. Wrong in judgment I may 
have been; but, I insist, wrong in intention or 
inconsistent to my former opinions, never Upon 
the same theory by which I felt myself bound to 
put down insurrection in Maryland, while it re‘ 
mained loyal, whether that insurrection was the 
work of blacks or whites, by the same loyalty to 
the Constitution and laws, I felt bound to confis¬ 
cate slave property in the rebellious State of 
Virginia. [Applause.] Pardon me, sir, if right 
here I say that I am a little sensitive upon this 
topic. I am an old-fashioned Andrew Jackson 
Democrat of twenty years’ standing. [Applause. 
A voice: “The second hero of New Orleans.” 
Renewed applause culminating in three cheers.] 
And so far as I know, I have never swerved, so 
help me God, from one of his teachings. [Great 
applause.] Up to the time that disunion took 
place, I went a3 far as the farthest in sustaining 
the constitutional rights of the States. However 
bitter or distasteful to me were the obligations 
my fathers had made for me in the compromise 
of the Constitution, it was not for me to pick out 
the sweet from the bitter ; and, fellow-democrats, 
I took them all [loud cheers] because they were 
constitutional obligations [applause] ; and sustain¬ 
ing them all, I stood by the South and by South¬ 
ern rights under the Constitution until I advanced 
and looked into the very pit of disunion, and into 
which they plunged, and then, not liking the pros¬ 
pect, I quietly withdrew. [Immense applause 


and laughter.] And from that hour we -went 
apart, how far apart you can judge when “I tell 
you, that on the 23th December, lSgO, I shook 
hands on terms of personal friendship with Jeffer¬ 
son Davis, and on the 28th of December, 1862, I 
had the pleasure of reading his proclamation that 
I was to be hanged at sight. [Great applause 
and laughter.] And now, my friends, if you will 
allow me to pause for a moment in this line of 
thought, as we come up to the point of time, when 
these men laid down their constitutional obliga¬ 
tions, let me ask, what then were my rights, 
and what were theirs ? At that hour they repudi¬ 
ated the Constitution of the United .States, by 
vote in solemn Convention; and not only that, 
but they took arms in their hands, and undertook 
by force to rend from the Government what 
seemed to them the fairest portion of the heritage 
which my fathers had given to you and me as a 
rich legacy for our children. When they did that, 
they abrogated, abnegated, and forfeited every 
constitutional right, and released me from every 
constitutional obligation, so far as they were con¬ 
cerned. [Loud cheers.] Therefore when I was 
thus called upon to say what should be my action 
thereafter with regard to slavery, I was left to 
the natural instincts of my heart, as prompted by 
a Christian education in New England, and j 
dealt with it accordingly. [Immense applause.] 
The same sense of duty to my constitutional ob¬ 
ligations, and to the rights of the several States 
that required me, so long as those States remained 
under the Constitution, to protect the system of 
slavery,—that same sense of duty after they had 
gone out from under the Constitution, caused 
me to follow the dictates of my own untrammelled 
conscience. So you see—and I speak now to my 
old Democratic friends—that, however misjudg¬ 
ing I may have been, we went along together, 
step by step, up to that point; and I claim that 
we ought still to go on in the same manner. Wo 
acknowledged the right of those men to hold 
slaves, because it was guaranteed to them by tho 
compromise of our fathers in the Constitution; 
but if their State rights were to be respected, be¬ 
cause of our allegiance to the Constitution and our 
respect to State rights, when that sacred obliga¬ 
tion was taken away by their own traitorous acts, 
and we, as well as the negroes, were disenthralled* 
why should not we follow the dictates of God’s 
law and humanity ? [Tremendous applause, and 
cries of “ Bravo, Bravo.”] By the exigenciea'of 



8 


the public service removed once more to another 
sphere of action, at New Orleans, I found this 
problem earning up in another form, and that led 
me to examine and see how far had progressed 
this civil commotion, now carried on by force of 
arms. I found under our complex system of States, 
each having an independent government, with the 
United States covering all, that there can be 
treason to a State and not to the United. States, 
revolution in a State and not as regards the 
United States, loyalty to a State and disloyalty 
to the Union, and loyalty to the Union and dis¬ 
loyalty to the organized Government of a State. 
As an illustration, take the troubles which almost 
lately arose in the State of Rhode Island, where 
there was an attempt to rebel against the State 
Government and to change the form of that Gov¬ 
ernment, but no rebellion ’against the United 
States. All of you are familiar with the move¬ 
ments of Mr. Dorr; in that matter there was no 
intent of disloyalty against the United States, 
but a great deal against the State Government. I 
therefore in Louisiana found a State Government 
that had entirely changed its form, and had revolu¬ 
tionized itself so far as it could; had created 
courts and imposed taxes; and put in motion all 
kinds of governmental machinery; and I found 
so far as this State Government was concerned, 
Louisiana was no longer in and of itself one of 
the United States of America. It had, so far as 
it could, changed its State Government, and by 
solemn act had forever seceded from the United 
States of America and attempted to join the Con¬ 
federate States. I found, I respectfully submit, 
a revolutionized State ! There had been a revo¬ 
lution, by force; beyond a riot, which is an infrac¬ 
tion of the law ; beyond an insurrection, which is 
an abnegation of the law; beyond a rebellion, 
which is an attempt to override the law by force 
of numbers; and, further, I found a new State 
Government formed, that was being supported 
by force of arms. Now, I asked myself, upon 
what thesis shall I deal with those people ? 
Organized into a community under forms of law, 
they had seized a portion of the territory of the 
United States; and I respectfully submit I had to 
deal with them as alien enemies. [Great ap¬ 
plause.] They had forever passed the boundary 
of “wayward sisters,” or “erring brothers,” un¬ 
less indeed they erred toward us as Cain did 
against his brother Abel. They had passed be¬ 
yond that and outside of it. Aye, and Louisiana 


had done this in the strongest possible way, for 
she had seized on territory which the Govern¬ 
ment of the United States had bought and 
paid for. Therefore I dealt with them as 
alien enemies. [Applause.] And what rights 
have alien enemies, captured in war? They 
have the right, so long as they behave 
themselves and are non-combatants, to be free 
from personal violence; they have no other 
rights; and therefore, it was my duty to see to 
it, (and I believe the record will show, I did see 
to it,) [great applause and loud cheers,] that 
order was preserved, and that every man who 
behaved well, and did not aid the Confederate 
States, should not be molested in his person. I 
held, by the laws of war, that everything else 
they had was at the mercy of the conqueror. 
[Cheers.] Permit ine to state the method in 
which their rights were defined by one gentleman 
of my staff. He very coolly paraphrased the 
Dred Scott decision, and said they had no rights 
which a negro was bound to respect. [Loud and 
prolonged laughter and cheers.] But, dealing 
with them in this way, I took care to protect all 
men in personal safety. Now I hear a friend be¬ 
hind me say : “ But how does your theory affect 
loyal men ?” The difficulty in answering that 
proposition, is this : in governmental action the 
Government, in making peace and carrying on * 
war, cannot deal with individuals, but with or¬ 
ganized communities, whether organized wrongly 
or rightly [cheers] : and all I could do, so far as 
my judgment taught me, for the loyal citizen, 
was to see to it that no exaction should be made 
of him, and no property taken away from him, 
that was not absolutely necessary for the success 
of military operations. I know nothing else that 
I could do. I could not alter the carrying on of 
the war, because loyal citizens were, unfortunate¬ 
ly, like Dog Tray, found iu bad company [laugh¬ 
ter], and to their persons, and to their property, 
even, all possible protection I caused to be afford¬ 
ed. But let me repeat—for it is quite necessary 
to keep this in mind, and I am afraid that for 
want of so doing, some of my old Democratic 
friends have got lost, in going from one portion of 
the country to the other, in their thoughts and 
feelings—let me repeat that, in making war or 
making peace, carrying on governmental opera¬ 
tions of any sort, governments and their repre¬ 
sentatives, so far as I am instructed, can deal 
only with organized communities, and men must 




0 


fall or rise -with the communities in which they 
are situated. You in New York must follow the 
Government as expressed by the will of the ma¬ 
jority of your State, until you can revolutionize 
that Government and change it; and those loyal 
at the South must, until this contest comes into 
process of settlement, also follow the action of the 
organized majorities in which their lot has been 
cast, and no man, no set of men, can see the possible 
solution of this or any other governmental prob¬ 
lem, as affecting States, except upon this basis. 
Now, then, to pass from the particular to the 
general, to leave the detail in Louisidfia, of 
which I have run down the account, rather as 
illustrating my meaning than otherwise, I come 
back to the question : What is the contest with 
all the States that are banded together in the so- 
called Confederate States ? Into what form has 
it come? It started in insurrection ; it grew up 
a rebellion ; it has become a revolution, and car¬ 
ries with it all the rights of a revolution. Our 
Government has dealt with it upon that ground. 
When the Government blockaded Southern ports, 
they dealt with it as a revolution ; when they sent 
out cartels of exchange of prisoners, they dealt 
with these people no longer as simple insurrec¬ 
tionists and traitors, but as organized revolution¬ 
ists, who had set up a government for themselves 
upon the territory of the United States. Sir, 
let no man say to me, “ Why, then you acknowl¬ 
edge the rights of revolution in these men!” I 
beg your pardon, sir, I only acknowledge the fad 
of revolution—that which has actually happened. 
Ielook these things in the face, and I do not dodge 
them because they are unpleasant; I find this a 
revolution, and these men are no longer, I repeat, 
our erring brethren, but they are our alien ene¬ 
mies, foreigners [cheers] carrying on war against 
us, attempting to make alliances against us, at¬ 
tempting surreptitiously to get into the family of 
nations. I agree that it is not a successful revo¬ 
lution, and a revolution never to be Successful 
[loud cheers],—pardon me, I was speaking theo¬ 
retically, as a matter of law,—-never to be suc¬ 
cessful until acknowledged by the parent State. 
Now, then, I am willing to unite with you in 
your cheers, when you say, a revolution, the 
rightfulness or success of which we never will 
acknowledge. [Cheers.] Why, sir, have I been 
so careful in bringing down with great particu¬ 
larity thesfe distinctions ? Because, in my judg¬ 
ment; there are certain logical consequences fol¬ 


lowing from them as necessarily as various 
corollaries from a problem in Euclid. If 
we are at war, as I think, with a foreign 
country, to all intents and purposes, how 
can a man here stand up and say he is on 
the side of that foreign country and not be an 
enemy to his country ? [Cheers.] A man must 
be either for his country or against his country. 
[Cheers.] He cannot, upon this theory, be 
throwing impediments all the time in the way of 
the progress of his Government, under pretense 
that he is helping some other portion of his coun¬ 
try. If any loyal man thinks that he mus*„ do 
something to bring back his erring brethren, if he 
likes that form of phrase, at the South, let him 
take his musket and go down and try it in that 
way. [Cheers.] If he is still of a different 
opinion, and thinks that is not the best way to 
bring them back, but he can do it by persuasion 
and talk, let him go down with me to Louisiana, 
and I will set him over to Mississippi, and if the 
rebels do not feel for bis heart-strings, but not in 
love, I will bring him back. [Cheers, loud and 
prolonged. “ Send Wood down first!”] Let us 
say to him: Choose ye this day whom ye will 
serve. If the Lord thy God be God, serve him; 
if Baal be God, serve ye him. [Cheers.] But no 
man can serve two masters, God and Mammon. 
[“ That’s so.”] AgaiD, there are other logical conse¬ 
quences to flow from the view which I have ven¬ 
tured to take of this subject, and that is with re¬ 
gard to our relations from past political action. 
If they are now alien enemies, I am bound to 
them by no ties of party fealty. They have 
passed out of that, and I think we ought to go 
back only to examine and see if all ties of party 
allegiance and party fealty as regards them are 
not broken, and satisfy ourselves that it is your 
duty and mine to look simply to our country and 
to its service, and leave them to look to the conn- 
try they are attempting to erect, and to its service; 
and then let us try the conclusion with them. 
Mark, by this I give up no territory of the Uni¬ 
ted States. Every foot that was ever circum¬ 
scribed on the map by the lines around the United 
States belongs to us. [Applause.] Nonetheless 
because bad men \ave attempted to organize worse 
government upon various portions of it. It is 
to be drawn in under our laws and our Govern¬ 
ment as soon as the power of the United States 
can be exerted for that purpose, and, therefore, 
my friends, you see the next set of logical conse- 






10 


* 

quenccs that prove our theory; that we have no 
occasion to carry on the fight for the Constitution 
as it was. I beg your pardon, the Constitution 
as it is. Who is interfering with the Constitution 
as it is ? Who makes any attacks upon the Con¬ 
stitution? We are fighting* with those who have 
gone out and repudiated the Constitution, and made 
another Constitution for • themselves. [Cheers.] 
And, now, my friends, I do not know but I shall 
use some heresy, but as a Democrat, as an 
Andrew Jackson Democrat, I atn not for the 
Union as it was. [Great cheering. “Good!” 
“ Good !”] I say, as a Democrat, and an Andrew 
Jackson Democrat, I am not for the Union to be 
again as it was. Understand me; I was for 
Union, because I saw, or thought I saw, the 
troubles in the future which have burst upon us ; 
but having undergone those troubles, having 
spent all this blood and this treasure, I do not 
mean to go back again and be cheek by jowl with 
South Carolina as I was before, if I can help it. 
[Cheers. “ You’re right.”] Mark me, now, let no 
man misunderstand me, and I repeat, lest I may 
be misunderstood—there are none so slow to un¬ 
derstand as those who do not want to—mark me, 
I say I do not mean to give up a single inch of 
the soil of South Carolina. If I had been alive at 
that time, and had had the position, tlie will, and 
the ability, I would have dealt with South Caro¬ 
lina as Jackson did, and kept her in the Union a^ 
all hazards, but now she has gone out, and I will 
take care that when she comes in again, she 
comes in better behaved [cheers], that she shall 
no longer be the. firebrand of the Union—aye, 
and that she shall enjoy what her people never 
yet have enjoyed—the ble ; sir:gs of a Republican 
form of Government. [Applause.] Therefore, 
in that view, I am not for the reconstruction of 
the Union as it was. I have spent treasure and 
blood enough upon it, in conjunction with my 
fellow-citizens, to make it a little better. [Cheers.] 
I think we can have a better Union the next 
time. It was good enough if it had been left 
alone. The old house was good enough for me, 
but as they have pulled down all the L part, I 
propose, when we build it up, to build it up with 
all the modern improvements. [Prolonged 
laughter and applause.] Another of the logical 
sequences, it seems to me, that follow with inex¬ 
orable and not-to-be-shunned sequence upon this 
proposition, that we are dealing with alien 
enemies, is with regard to our duties as to the cun- 


fiscation of their property, and that question 
would seem to me to be easy of settlement under 
the Constitution, and without any discussion, if 
my first proposition is right.'• Has it not been 
held from the beginning of the world down to 
this day, from the time the Israelites took pos¬ 
session of the Land of Canaan, which they got 
from alien enemies—has it not been held that the 
whole property of those alien enemies belonged 
to the conqueror, and that it has been at his mercy 
and his clemency what should be done with it? 
For one, I would take it and give the loyal man 
who fvas loyal in the heart of the South, enough 
, to make him as well as he was before, and I 
j would take the balance of it and distribute it 
among the volunteer soldiers who have gone— 
—[the remainder of the sentence was drowned 
in a tremendous burst of applause.] And so far, 
as I know them, ff we should settle South Caro¬ 
lina with them, in the course of a few years I 
would be quite willing fo receive her back into 
the Union. [Renewed applause.] That leads us 
to deal with another proposition : What shall be 
done with the slaves? Here again the laws of 
war have long settled, with clearness and exact¬ 
ness, that it is for the conqueror, for the govern¬ 
ment which has maintained or extended its juris¬ 
diction over the conquered territory, to deal .with 
slaves as it pleases, to free them or not as it 
chooses. It is not for the conquered to make 
terms, or to send their friends into the conquered 
country to make terms for them. [Applause ] An¬ 
other corollary follows from the proposition that 
we are fighting with alien enemies, which relieves 
us from another difficulty which seems to trouble 
some of my old Democratic friends, and that is in re¬ 
lation to the question of arming the negro slaves. 
If the seceded States are alien enemies, is there 
any objection that you know of, and if so, state it, 
to our arming one portion of the foreign country 
against the other while they are fighting us? 
[Applause, and cries of “No!” “No!”] Sup¬ 

pose that we were at war with England. Who 
would get up here in New York and say that we 
must not arm the Irish, lest they should hurt 
some of the English ? [Applause.] And yet at 
one time, not very far gone, all those Englishmen 
were our grandfathers’ brothers. Either they or 
we erred ; but we are now separate nations. 
There can be no objection, for another reason, 
because there is no law of war • or of 
nations,—no rule of governmental action that £ 





11 


know of,—which prevents a country from arming 
any portion of its citizens; and if the slaves do 
not take part in the rebellion, they become sim¬ 
ply our citizens residing in our territory which is 
at present usurped by our enemies. [Applause.] 
At this waning hour, I do not propose to discuss, 
but merely to hint at these various subjects- 
[Cries of “ Go on.”] There is one question I am 
frequently asked, and most frequently by my old 
Democratic friends:—“ Why, Gen. Butler, what is 
your experience ? Will the negroes fight1” To that 
I answer, I have no personal experience, because 
I left the Department of the Gulf before they 
were fairly brought into action. But they did 
fight under Jackson, at Chalmette. More than 
that. Let Napoleon III. answer, who has hired 
them to do what the veterans of the Crimea can¬ 
not do—to whip the Mexicans. Let the veterans 
of Napoleon I., under Le Clerc, who were whip¬ 
ped by them out of St. Domingo, say whether 
they will fight or not. „ What has been the de¬ 
moralizing effect upon them as a race by their 
cantact with white men, I know not; hut I can¬ 
not forget that their fathers would not have been 
slaves, but that they were captives in war, in 
their own country, in hand to hand fights among 
the several chiefs. They would fight at some 
time; and if you want to know any more than 
that, I can only advise you to try them. [Great 
applause.] Passing to another logical deduction 
from the principle that we are carrying on war 
against alien enemies, (for I pray you to remem¬ 
ber that I am only carrying out the same idea 
upon which the Government acted when it insti¬ 
tuted the blockade,) I meet the question whether 
we thereby give foreign nations any greater rights 
than if we considered them as a rebellious portion 
of our country. We-have heretofore seemed to con¬ 
sider, that if we acknowledged that there was a 
revolution, and there were alien enemies in this 
fight, that, therefore, we should give to foreign 
nations greater right to interfere in our affairs 
than they would have if they were rebels, con¬ 
sidered and held by us as rebels, only in the re¬ 
bellious part of our own country. The first 
answer to that is this ; that, so far as the rebels 
are concerned, they are estopped to deny that 
they are exactly what they claim themselves to 
be, alien enemies; and, so far as foreign nations 
are concerned, while they are alien to us, yet they 
are upon our territory, and until we acknowledge 
them, there is no better settled rule of the law of 


nations, than that the recognition of them is an 
act of war. They have no more right to recog¬ 
nize them, because we say, “We will deal with 
you as belligerent alien enemies,” than they 
would have to deal with them if we dealt with 
them simply as rebels; and no country is more 
sternly and strongly bound by that view than is 
England, because she held the recognition by 
France of our independence to be an act of 
war and declared war accordingly. [Applause.] 
Therefore, I do not see # who would lose any 
rights. We do not allow that this is a rightful 
rebellion—we do not recognize it as such—we do 
not act toward it except in the best way we can 
to put it down and to re-revolutionize the country. 
But what is the duty, then, of neutrals, if these 
are alien enemies? We find them a people with 
whom no neutral nation has any treaty of amity 
or alliance; they are strangers to every neutral 
nation, and, for example, let us take the English. 
The English nation have no treaty with the rebels 
—have no relations with the rebels—open rela¬ 
tions I mean, [laughter,] none that are recognized 
by the laws of nations. They havo a treaty of 
amity and friendship with us, and now what is 
their duty in the contest between us and our ene¬ 
mies, to whom they are strangers ? They claim 
it to be neutrality, such neutrality as they would 
maintain between two friendly nations with 
whom they have had treaties of amity. Let me 
illustrate: I have two friends that have got into 
a quarrel—into a fight, if you please; I am on 
equally good terms with both, and I do not 
choose to take a part with either. I treat them as 
belligerents, and hold myself neutral. That is 
the position of a nation, where two equally friend¬ 
ly nations are fighting. But I have a friend 
Again who is fighting with a stranger, with whom 
I haVe nothing to do, of whom I know nothing 
that is good, of whom I have seen nothing except 
that he would fight—what is my duty, my 
friends, in that case? To stand perfectly neu¬ 
tral ? It is not the part of a friend, as between 
men, and it is not the part of a friendly nation 
as between nations. And yet, from some strange 
misconception, our English friends profess to do 
no more than to stand perfectly neutral, while 
they hav^treaties of amity with us and no treaty 
which they acknowledge with the South. [Ap¬ 
plause.] And, therefore, I say it is a much high¬ 
er duty on the part of foreign nations toward us 
when we are in contest with a nation with which 





12 



they have no treaty of amity To illustrate how 
this fact bears upon this question: the English 
say, “Oh! we are going to be neutral; we will 
not sell you any arms, because we should have to 
sell the same to the Confederates.” To that I an¬ 
swer: You have got treaties of amity and com¬ 
merce with us by which you agree to trade with 
us. You have got no treaty of amity or commerce 
with them by which you agree to trade with 
them. Why not, then, trade with us? why not 
give us that right of preference, except for reasons 
that I will state hereafter ? I have been thus 
particular upon this, because in stating these 
views to gentlemen in whose judgment I have 
great confidence, they have said to me, “ I agree 
to your views, Mr Butler, but I am afraid you 
will involve us with other nations, in the view 
that you take of that matter.” But I insist, and 
I can only stale the proposition—your own minds 
will carry it out familiarly—I insist that there is 
a higher and closer duty to us—treating the 
rebels as a strange nation, not yet admitted into 
the family of nations—that there is a higher duty 
from our old friendship, from our old relations 
toward Great Britain, than there is to this push¬ 
ing, attempting-to-get-into-place member of the 
family of nations. 

There is still another logical sequence which, 
in my judgment, follows from this view of the 
case. The great question put to me, my friends, 
and the great question which is now agitating 
this country, is, How are we to get these men 
back ? how are we to get this territory back ? 
how are we to reconstruct the nation ? I think it 
is much better answered upon this hypothesis 
than any other: There are but two ways in which 
this contest can be ended; one is by re-revolution¬ 
izing a portion of this territory, and have Jhcm 
come to ask to be admitted into the Union; 
another is, to bring it all back, so that if they do 
not come back in the first way, they shall come 
back bound to our triumphal car of victory. 
[Applause.] Now, when any portion of the South 
becomes loyal to the North and to the Union, or ? 
to express it with more care, when any portion 
of the inhabitants of the South wish to become 
again a part of the nation, and will throw off the 
government of Jefferson Davis, erect themselves 
into a State, and come and ask us to take them 
back with such a State Constitution as they 
ought to be admitted back again under, there is 
no difficulty in its being done. There is no 


witchery about this. This precise thing has been 
done in the case of Western Virginia. She went 
out—stayed out for a while. By the aid of our 
armies, and by the efforts of her citizens, she 
re-revolutionized, she threw off the government of 
the rest of the State of Virginia; she threw off 
the Confederate yoke; she erected herself.into a 
State, with a Constitution such as I believe is 
quite satisfactory to all of us, especially the 
amendment. [Applause.] She has asked to come 
back, and has been received back, and is the first 
entering wedgeltof that series of States which 
will come back that way. But suppose they will 
not come back ? Wc are bound to subjugate 
them. What, then, do they become ? Territories 
of the United States—[great applause]—acquired 
by force of arms—[renewed applause]—precisely 
as we acquired California, precisely as we ac¬ 
quired Nevada, precisely as we acquired—not 
; exactly, though—as we acquired Texas—[laugh¬ 
ter] ; and then is there any difficulty in dealing 
with these men? Was there any difficulty in 
dealing with the State of California, when our 
men went there and settled in sufficient numbers 
so as to give that State the benefits of the bless¬ 
ings of a republican form of government? Was 
there any difficulty in obtaining her, beyond our 
transactions with Mexico? None whatever. Will 
there be any difficulty in taking to us the new 
State of Nevada when she is ready to come and 
ripe to come ? Was there any difficulty in taking 
any portion of the Louisiana purchase, when we 
bought her first? Will there be any difficulty, 
when her people get ready to come back to tho 
United States, of our taking her back again, more 
than, perhaps, to carry out the parallel a little 
further, to pay a large sum of money besides, as 
we did in the case of California after we con¬ 
quered it from Mexico? These States having 
gone out without cause, without right, without 
grievance, and having formed themselves into 
new States, and taken upon themselves new alli¬ 
ances, I am not for having them come back with¬ 
out readmission. I feel, perhaps, if the ladies 
will pardon the illustration, like a husband whoso 
wife has run away with another man, and has 
divorced herself from him; he cannot take her to 
his arms until they have come before the priesj 
and been remarried. [Laughter.] I have, I say, 
the same feeling in the case of these people that 
have gone out; when they repent, and ask to 
come back, I am ready to receive them; and I aia 




13 


not ready until then. And now, having gone by 
far too discursively over many of these points 
which I desired to bring to yOur attention, let us 
return to what has been done, in the Department 
of the Gulf, to which you have so flatteringly 
alluded, and to which I will answer. While I am 
very much gratified at the kind expression of your 
regard, whether that expression is justified can 
be told in a single word. When I left the Depart¬ 
ment of the Gulf, I sat down and deliberately put 
in the form of an address, to the people of that 
Department, the exact acts I had done while in 
their Department; and I said to them, “I have 
done these things,” and I have now waited more 
than three months, and I have yet to hear a 
denial from that Department that these things 
were done. [Applause.] And to that, sir, I can 
point alone as a justification of your too flattering 
eulogy, aud to that I point forever as an 
answer to every slander and every calumny. 
The ladies of New Orleans knew whether they 
were safe ; has any one of them ever said she was 
not ? The men of New Orleans knew whether 
life and property were safe; has any man ever 
said they were not? The poor of New Orleans 
knew whether the money which was taken from 
the rich rebels, was applied to the alleviation of 
their wants ; has any man denied that it was ? To 
that record I point—and it will be the only answer 
that I shall ever make; and I only do it now be¬ 
cause I desire that you shall have neither doubt 
nor feeling upon this subject—it is the only answer 
I can ever make to the thousand calumnies that 
have been poured upon me and mine, and upon 
the officers who worked with me for the good of 
our country. [Applause.] I desire now to say a 
single word upon the question, what are the pros, 
pects of this war ? My simple opinion would be no 
better than that of another man ; but let me show 
you the reason for the faith that is in me that this 
war is progressing steadily to a successful termin¬ 
ation. Compare the state of the country on Jan’y 
1, 1863, with the state of the country on Jan’y 1, 
1862, and tell me whether there has not been 
progress. At that time the Union armies held no 
considerable portion of Missouri, of Kentucky, or 
of Tennessee; none of Virginia, except Fortress 
Monroe and Arlington Heights; none of North 
Carolina save Hatteras, and none of South Caro, 
lina save Port Royal. All the rest was ground of 
struggle at least, and all the rest furnishing sup¬ 
plies to the rebels. Now they hold none of 


Missouri, none of Kentucky, none of Tennessee, for 
any valuable purpose of supplies, because the 
western portion is in our hands, and the eastern 
portion has been so run over by the contending 
armies that the supplies are gone. They hold no 
portion of Virginia valuable for supplies, for tha* 1 
is eaten out by their armies. We hold one-third oi 
Virginia, and half of North Carolina. We hold our 
own in South Carolina; and I hope that, before 
the 11th of this month, we shall hold a little more. 
[Applause.] We hold two-thirds of Louisiana 
in wealth and population. We hold all Arkansas 
and all Texas, so far as supplies are concerned, so 
long as Farragut is between Port HudsoD and 
Vicksburg. [Applause.] And I believe tho 
colored troops held Florida, at the last accounts. 
Now, then, let us see to what the rebellion is 
reduced. It is reduced to tho remainder of Vir¬ 
ginia, part of North Caorlina, all of Georgia, Ala¬ 
bama and Mississippi, and a small portion of Lou¬ 
isiana and Tenness e; Texas and Arkansas, as I 
said before, toeing cut off. Why I draw strong 
hopes from this is, that their supplies all come 
either from Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkan¬ 
sas, or Texas, and these are completely now 
beyond their reach. To that I look largely fo r 
the suppression of this rebellion, and the over¬ 
throw of this revolution. They have got to the 
end of their conscription; we have not begun ours. 
They have got to the end of their national credit; 
we have not put ours in any market in the world. 
[Applause.] And why should any man be de¬ 
sponding ? why should any man say that this great 
work has gone on too slowly ? why should men 
feel impatient? The war of the Revolution was 
seven years. Why should men be so anxious that 
nations should march faster than they are prepar¬ 
ed to march—faster than the tread of nations has 
ever been in the Providence of God ? Nations in 
Avar have ever moved slowly. We are too impa¬ 
tient—we never learn anything, it would seem to 
me, from reading history—I speak of myself a 8 
well as you—I have shared in that impatience 
myself. I have shared in the various matters of 
disappointment. I was saying but the other day, 
to a friend of mine, “ It seems strange to me that 
our navy cannot catch that steamer Alabama; 
there must be something wrong in the Navy De¬ 
partment, I am afraid,” aud I got quite impatient. 
I had hardly got over the wound inflicted by the 
capture of the Jacob Bell, when came the Golden 
Eagle, and the Lady Jane, and a3 one was from 






14 


Boston, it touched me keenly. [Applause.] He 
replied: “Don’t be impatient, remember that 
Paul Jones, with a sailing ship on the coast of 
England, put the whole British navy at defiance 
for many months, and wandered up and down that 
coast, and worked his will upon it, [applause,] and 
England had no naval power to contend with, 
and had not 2,500 miles to blockade. I remember 
that in the French war, Lord Cochrane, with 
one vessel, and that was by no means a steam¬ 
ship, held the whole French coast against the 
French navy. And so it has been done by other 
nations. Let us have a little patience, and possess 
our souls with a little patriotism, and les 4 .politics, 
and we shall have no difficulty. [Applause, and 
“ Good.”] But there is one circumstance of this 
war, I am bound to say in all frankness to you, 
that I do not like the appearance of, and that is, 
because we cannot exactly reach it. I refer to 
the war made upon our commerce, which is not 
the fault of the navy, nor of any department of 
the Government, but is the fault of our allies. 
[Applause.] Pardon me a moment, for I am 
speaking now in the commercial city of New 
York, where I think it is of interest to you, and 
of a matter to which I have given some reflection 
—pardon me a moment, until we examine and 
see what England has done. She agreed to be 
neutral—I tried to demonstrate to you that she 
ought to have been a little more—but has she 
been even that ? [“ No, no, no.”] Let us see the 

evidences of that “no.” In the first place, there 
has been nothing of the Union cause that her 
orators and her statesmen have not maligned— 
there lias been nothing of sympathy or encourage¬ 
ment which she has not afforded our enemies— 
there has been nothing which she could do under 
the cover of neutrality which she has not done to 
aid them. [“ That is true.”] Nassau has been a 
naval arsenal for pirate rebel boats to refit in. 
Kingston has been the coal depot, and Barbadoes 
has been the dancing hall to fete pirate chieftains 
in. [Applause.] What cause, my friends— 
what cause, my countrymen, has England so to 
deal with us ? What is the reason she does so 
deal with us ? Is it because we have never shown 
sympathy toward her or love to her people? 
And mark me here, that I make a distinction be¬ 
tween the English people as a mass and the 
English Government. [Applause.] I think the 
heart of her people beats responsive to ours— 
[applause]—but I know her Government and 
aristocracy hate us with a hate which passeth all 
understanding. [Applause.] I say, let us see if 
we have given any cause for this. I know, I 
think, what the cause is; but let us see what we 
have done. You remember that when the famine 
overtook the Irish in 1847, the Macedonian frigate 
carried out the bread from this country to feed 
the poor that England was starving. [Applause.] 
When afterward the heir to her throne arrived 


here, aye, in this very house, our people assembled 
to do him welcome in such numbers that the very 
floor would not uphold them daughter], and to 
testify our appreciation of the high qualities of 
his mother and sovereign, and our love of the 
English people—we gave him such a reception a3 
Northern gentlemen give to their friends; and his 
present admirers at Richmond gave him such a 
reception a3 Southern gentlemen give to their 
friends. [Laughter and applause.] What fur¬ 
ther has been done by us? No, I have no right 
to claim any portion of it. What has been donle 
by the merchants of New York? The George 
Griswold goes out to feed the starving poor of 
Lancashire, to which yourselves all contributed, 
and it was only God’s blessing on that charity 
that prevented that vessel being overhauled and 
burned by the pirate Alabama , fitted out from an 
English port. [Applause.] And to-day, at Birken¬ 
head, the Sumter is being fitted out—at Barbadoes 
the captain of the Florida is bein g feted —and 
somewhere the “ 290,” the cabalistic number of 
the British merchants who contributed to her con¬ 
struction, is preying upon our commerce, while 
we hear that at Glasgow a steamer is being built 
for the Emperor of China—[laughter]—and at 
Liverpool auother is about to be launched for 
the Emperor of China. Pardon me, I don’t 
believe the Emperor of China will buy many 
ships of Great Britain, until they bring back 
the silk gowns they stole out of his palace at 
Pekin. [Laughter and great applause.] And 
even now, I say that our commerce is being 
preyed upon, by ships in the hands of the rebels, 
built by English builders. [Cries of “ That’s so.”] 
Asd I ask the merchants of the city of New York 
whether it has not already reached the point 
where our commerce, to be safe, has to be carried 
in British bottoms. [Great laughter.] Now, I 
learn from the late correspondence of Earl Rus¬ 
sell, that the British have put two articles of the 
treaty of Paris in compact with the rebels— 
first, that enemies’ goods shall be covered by 
neutral flags, and there shall be free trade at the 
port3, and open trade with neutrals. Why didn’t 
Great Britain put the other part of the treaty in 
compact; namely, that there should be no more 
privateering! if she was honest and earnest? 
Again, when we took from her deck our two 
senators and rebel ambassadors, Slidell and Mason, 
and took them, in my judgment, according to the 
laws of nations, what did she do but threaten us 
with war ? I agree that it was wisely done, per¬ 
haps not to provoke war at that time—we were 
not quite in a condition for it—but I thank God, 
and that always, that we are fast getting in a 
condition to remember that always and every 
day! [Tremendous applause, and waiving of 
handkerchiefs, and cries of “ Good!”] Why is it 
all this has been done ? Because we alone can be 
the commercial rivals of Great Britain 1 and be¬ 
cause the South has no commercial marine. There 
has been, in my judgment, a deliberate attempt 
on the part of Great Britain, under the plea of 
neutrality, to allow our commerce to be ruined, 





15 


if human actions indicate human thoughts. [Cries 
of “ That is so.”] It is idle to tell me Great 
Britain does not know these vessels are fitted out 
in her ports. It is idle and insulting to tell me 
that she put the Alabama under $ 20,000 bonds, not 
to go into the service of the Confederate States. 
The Jacob Bell alone would pay the amount of the 
bond over and over again. We did not so deal 
with her when she was at war with Russia. On 
the suggestion of the British Minister, our Gov¬ 
ernment stopped, with the rapidity of lightning, 
the sailing of a steamer, until the minister himself 
was willing to let her go. We must take some 
means to put a stop to these piracies, and to the 
fitting out of pirate vessels in English ports. 
'I hey are always telling us about the inefficiency 
of a republican government, but as they are act¬ 
ing now, we could stop two pirates to her one. 
[Applause.] We must, in some way, put a stop 
to the construction and fitting out of these pirate 
vessels in English'ports to prey upon our com¬ 
merce, or else consent to keep our ships at home 
We must stop them—we must act through the 
people of England, if we cannot secure a stoppage 
in any other waj\ [Applause.] I have seen it 
stated «that the loss to our commerce already 
amounts to $9,000,000—enough to have paid the 
expense of keeping a large number of vessels at 
home, and out of the way of these cruisers. What 
shall we do in the matter? Why, when our Gov¬ 
ernment takes a step toward putting a stop to it, 
(and I believe it is taking that step now, but it is 
nothin my province to speak of it,) we must aid it 
in so doing. [Great applause.] We are the Gov¬ 
ernment in this matter, and when our Government 
gets ready to take a step, we must get ready to 
sustain it. [Applause.] England told us what 
to do when we took Mason and Slidell, and she 
thought there was a likelihood to be a war. She 
stopped exportation of those articles which she 
thought we wanted, and which she had allowed to 
be exported before. Let us do the same thing. 
[Applause.] Let us proclaim non-intercourse, so 
that no ounce of food shall ever by any accident 
get into an Englishman’s mouth, until these pira¬ 
cies cease. [Laughter and applause.] 

[A voice: “Say that again !”] 

Gen. Butler; 1 never say anything, m 3 ’friends, 
that I am afraid to say again. [Applause.] I re¬ 
peat—let us proclaim non-intercourse, so that no 
ounce of food shall by any accident get into an 
Englishman’s mouth, until these piracies are 
stopped. [Applause.] That we have aright to do; 
* and when we ever do do it, my word for it, they 
will find out where these vessels are going to. and 
they will write to the Emperor of China upon the 
subject. [Applause.] But I hear some objector 
say, “If you proclaim non-intercourse, England 
may go to war.” Now, I am not to be frightened 
twice running. [Laughter.] I got frightened a 
little better than a year ago, but I got over it. 
[Great laughter.] But further, this is a necessity ; 
for we must keep our ships at home in some form 
to save them from these piracies, when a dozen of 
these privateers get loose upon the seas. It be¬ 


comes a war measure which any nation, under any 
law, under any r construction, would warrant our 
right to enforce. And this course should be 
adopted toward the English nation, for I have 
never heard of any blockade runners under the 
French flag, nor under the Russian flag—nor un¬ 
der the Austrian flag—nor under the Greek flag. 
No! not even the Turks will do it. [Applause.] 
And, therefore, I have ventured to suggest the 
adoption of this course, for }’Our consideration as 
a possible, a} T e, not only possible, but, unless the 
thing has a remedy, a probable event: fo\ we 
must see to it that we protect ourselves and take 
a manly place among the nations of the earth. 
[Applause.] But 1 hear some friend of mine say, 
“ 1 am afraid your scheme would bring down our 
provisions ; and if we didn’t export them to Eng¬ 
land we .should find our western market still more 
depressed.” Allow me, with great deference to 
your judgment, gentlemen, to suggest a remedy 
for that at the same time. I would suggest that 
the exportation of gold be prohibited, and then 
there would be nothing to forward to meet the 
Bills of exchange and pay for the goods we have 
bought, except our provisions. And, taking a 
hint from one of your best and most successful 
merchants, we could pay for our silks and satins 
in butter, and lard, and corn, and beef, and pork, 
and bring up the prices in the Wesr, so that they 
could afford to pay the increased tariff now ren¬ 
dered necessary, 1 suppose, upon your railroads. 
[Applause.] And if our fair sisters and daughters 
will dress in silks, and satins, and laces, they will 
not feel any more troubled that a portion of the 
price goes to the Western farmer to enhance his 
gains, instead of going into the coffers of a Jew 
banker in Wall street. [Applause.] You will ob¬ 
serve, my friends, that in the list of grievances 
with which I charge England, I have not charged 
her with tampering with our leading politicians. 
[Laughter.] So far as any evidence I have, I 
don’t know that she is guilty, but what shall we 
say of our leading politicians that have tampered 
with her? [Laughter.] I have read of it with 
much surprise—with more surprise t*han has been 
excited in me by any other fact of this war. I 
had, somehow, got an inkling of the various things 
that came up in previous instances. I was not very 
much surprised at them, but when I read a state¬ 
ment, deliberate^ put forward, that here, in New 
York, leading politicians had consulted with the 
British minister as to how this United States could 
be separated, every drop of blood in my veins 
boiled ; and I would have liked to have seen that 
leading politician. [Tremendous applause.] I do 
not know that Lord Lyons is to blame. I suppose, 
sir, if a man comes to one of your clerks and 
offers to go into partnership with him to rob }’our 
neighbor’s bank, and he reports him to you, you 
do not blame the clerk; but what do you do with 
the man who makes the offer? [Laughter.] 

[A voice: “Hang himi”] 

1 think we had better take a lesson from the ac¬ 
tion of Washington’s administration—when the 
French minister, M. Genet, undertook even to 




16 


address the people of the United States by- 
letter, complaint was made to his government, 
and he was recalled, and a law was passed 
preventing, for all future time, any interference 
by foreign diplomatists with the people of the 
United States. I want to be understood—I have 
no evidence of any interference on the part of 
Lord Lyons; but he said that, both before and 
after a certain event, leading politicians came to 
him and desired that he would do what—(I am 
giving the substance and not words)—desired that 
lie would request his Government not to inter¬ 
fere. Why ? Because it would aid the country 
not to interfere ? No ! Because, if they did in¬ 
terfere, the country would spurn the interference, 
and be stronger than ever to crush the rebellion. 
Mark again the insidious way in which the point 
was put. They knew how we felt because of the 
action of England—they knew that the heart of 
this people beat true to the Constitution, and that 
it could not brook any interference on the part of 
England. What, then, did these politicians do ? 
They asked the British Minister to use the influ¬ 
ence of British diplomacy to induce other nations 
to interfere, but to take care that Great Britain 
should keep out of sight, lest we should see the 
cat under the meal. [Laughter.] This is pre¬ 
cisely the proposition that they made. You ob¬ 
serve, that in speaking of these men, I have, up 
to this moment, used the word politicians: What 
kind of politicians? [A voice: “Copperheads.” 
Hisses and groans.] They cannot be Democratic 
politicians. [“ Of course, they cannot.”] How I 
should like to hear Andrew Jackson say a few 
words upon such politicians who call themselves 
Democrats ! [“ He -would hang them.”] No, I 

don’t think he would have an opportunity to do so; 
he never'would be able tocatch them. [Laughter.] 

I have felt it my duty here in the city of New York, 
because of the interest I have in public affairs, to 
call attention to this most extraordinary fact— 
that there are men in the community so lost to 
patriotism, so bound up in the traditions of party, 
so selfish, as to be willing to tamper with Great 
Britain in ouder to briDg about the separation of 
this country. It is the most alarming fact that I 
have yet seen. I had rather see a hundred 
thousand men set in the field on the rebel side— 
aye, I had rather see - Great Britain armed against 
us openly, as she is covertly—than to be forced 
to believe that there are amongst us such men as 
these, lineal descendants of Judas Iscariot, inter¬ 
married with the race of Benedict Arnold. 
[“ Wood,” “ Brooks.”] It has shown me a great 
danger with which we are threatened, and I call 
upon all true men to sustain the Government—to 
be loyal to the Government. [Loud cheers.] 
As you, Sir, were pleased to say, the present 
Government was not the Government of my 
choice—I did not vote for it, or for any part of it; 
but it is the Government of my country, it is the 


only organ by which I can exert the force of the 
country to protect its integrity ; and as long as I 
believe that Governments be honestly adminis¬ 
tered, I will throw a mantle over any mistakes 
that I may think it has made, and support it 
heartily, with hand and purse, so help me 
God! [Prolonged cheering.] I have no loyalty 
to any man or men ; my loyalty is to the 
Government; and it makes no difference to me 
who the people have chosen to administer the 
Government, so long as the choice has been 
constitutionally made, and the persons so chosen 
hold their places and powers. I am a traitor 
and a false man if I falter in my support. 
[Applause.] This is what I understand to be 
loyalty to a Government; and I was sorry to 
learn, as I did the other day, that there was a 
man in New York who professed not to know the 
meaning of the word loyalty. [Hisses, groans, and 
cries of “ Wood.”] I desire to say here that it is 
the duty of every man to bq loyal to the Govern¬ 
ment, to sustain it, to pardon its errors, and help it 
to rectify them, and to do all he can to aid i 
in carrying the country on in the course of glon 
andgrandeur in which it was started by our fath¬ 
ers. And let me to say to you, my friends—to you, 
young men, that no man who opposed his country 
in time of war ever prospered. [“ That’s so.”] 
The Tory of the Revolution, the Hartford Con- 
ventionist of 1812, the immortal seven who voted 
against the supplies for the Mexican War—all 
history is against these men. Let no politician 
of our day put himself in the way of the march 
of this country to glory and greatness^ for 
whoever does so will surely be crushed. The 
course of our nation is onward, and let him who 
opposes it beware. 

“The mower mowes on—though the adder may writhe, 

Or the copperhead curl round the blade of his scythe.” 

[Loud applause.] It only remains, sir, for me tr 
repeat the expression of my gratitude to yc 
and the. citizens of New York here assembled, fc 
the kindness with which you and they have rt 
ceived me and listened to me, for which, please, 
again accept my thanks. [Prolonged cheering.] 

At the conclusion of Gen. Butler’s address tlm 
Glee Club sang with fine effect, an original pati 
otic song, which was received with general favJ 
by the audience, who then called variously fo 
Brady, Van Buren, and other popular favorites, 
but, in accordance with the plan of (he evening, 
the Mayor promptly adjourned the meeting, 
while hundreds availed themselves of the oppor- 
portunity to shake Gen. Butler by the hand, and 
congratulate him on his absolute refutation of tb 
slanders of the rebels of the South and the Cr L 
perheads of the North. 


— -— - 

PRINTED BY WM. C. BRYANT & CO., 41 NASSAU ST., COR. LIBERTY, NEW YOR * 




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